Cultural and Class Values In Family Process

Based on the sociological research of Kohn (1977), several clinical and theoretical perspectives on the family are criticized for paying insufficient attention to class and cultural distinctions both in constructing normative images of the family and in conceptualizing therapeutic intervention. It is suggested that the "democratic" model of healthy family interaction is, to some degree, class- and culture-specific so that sociologically undifferentiated views of the family are likely to prove ethnocentric. Family therapists are therefore urged to be attentive to sociodynamic as well as psychodynamic factors present within both family and therapeutic interactions.     

Cultural definitions of elder maltreatment in Portugal

A small convenience sample of 34 participants (17 males, 17 females) from the Portuguese islands of the Azores and Madeira were asked to provide examples of how extreme, moderate, and mild maltreatment towards an elder would be defined in their culture and society. Neglect, especially psychological neglect, physical maltreatment, and psychological maltreatment were the most frequently reported types of maltreatment. References to neglect and physical maltreatment appeared most often as examples of extreme maltreatment. In general, men were somewhat more likely than women to provide examples of physical aggression in their examples of maltreatment. As examples of extreme maltreatment, females provided significantly more examples of abandonment than males. Although interpretations of the findings must be cautious because of the small sample size and limited statistical power, the study illustrates a procedure for assessing constructs of elder mistreatment in a way that attends to respondents' own constructions of the phenomenon.     

Veteran-nonveteran differences in alcohol and drug misuse by tobacco use status in Alabama SBIRT

ABSTRACT

Alcohol and substance use can challenge military veterans who live in rural communities. In 2016, the screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment in Alabama (AL-SBIRT) program was implemented in west Alabama. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether current tobacco use modified the relationship between veteran status and substance misuse. Self-reported wellness data was collected regarding substance, alcohol, or tobacco consumption. Risk levels for alcohol and drug use were measured using the United States Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (US-AUDIT) and the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST)-10. Substance and tobacco use were significantly and positively correlated. Veterans had a higher US-AUDIT and DAST score than nonveterans, and tobacco appeared to be an exacerbating factor. Effective evidence-based interventions are needed in rural settings. Technology based programs and motivational interviewing with trained clinicians may serve as beneficial and cost-effective interventions for tobacco use prevention and cessation efforts.     

Multiracial Identities and Employee Absenteeism: Testing Contact and Depletion Hypotheses

Employee absenteeism costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars each year. Recent research finds that workplace characteristics are important predictors, yet variation remains by racial identity. Less is known about the reasons multiracial workers miss work. With data from the 2014 General Social Survey, we test a contact hypothesis and a depletion hypothesis. The findings support the depletion hypothesis. Multiracial workers are likely feeling cognitively taxed from comparatively more interracial interaction in the workplace, resulting in their higher rate of employee absenteeism. Given that the number of multiracial individuals living and working in the United States is expected to grow substantially over the next decade, understanding the factors that explain their work behavior may be beneficial to all social groups.     

ADHD and Brain Anatomy: What Do Academic Textbooks Used in the Netherlands Tell Students?

Studies of brain size of children classified with ADHD appear to reveal smaller brains when compared to ‘normal’ children. Yet, what does this mean? Even with the use of rigorously screened case and control groups, these studies show only small, average group differences between children with and without an ADHD classification. However, academic textbooks used in the Netherlands often portray individual children with an ADHD classification as having a different, malfunctioning brain that necessitates medical intervention. This conceptualisation of ADHD might serve professional interests, but not necessarily the interests of children.     

Oral health among student veterans: Effects on mental and physical health

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore differences in oral health among students by military service status in postsecondary settings. Participants: Secondary data were obtained from the American College Health Association’s 2011–2014 National College Health Assessment II. Method: Demographic characteristics of the study sample were explored by calculating frequencies and percentages by military service status. Research questions were explored with maximum likelihood multiple logistic regression. Results: Service member and veteran students are at greater risk for neglecting health behaviors associated with positive oral health, including that they were less likely to get dental exams and that those who deployed in the past were the least likely to be practicing good oral health. Conclusions: The results suggest that improving oral health will contribute to improving health and mental health outcomes in this population, and provide important information for health specialists working with service members and veterans on college campuses.     

A Discourse on the Incorporation of Organizational Factors into Probabilistic Risk Assessment: Key Questions and Categorical Review

This article presents a discourse on the incorporation of organizational factors into probabilistic risk assessment (PRA)/probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), a topic of debate since the 1980s that has spurred discussions among industry, regulatory agencies, and the research community. The main contributions of this article include (1) identifying the four key open questions associated with this topic; (2) framing ongoing debates by considering differing perspectives around each question; (3) offering a categorical review of existing studies on this topic to justify the selection of each question and to analyze the challenges related to each perspective; and (4) highlighting the directions of research required to reach a final resolution for each question. The four key questions are: (I) How significant is the contribution of organizational factors to accidents and incidents? (II) How critical, with respect to improving risk assessment, is the explicit incorporation of organizational factors into PRA? (III) What theoretical bases are needed for explicit incorporation of organizational factors into PRA? (IV) What methodological bases are needed for the explicit incorporation of organizational factors into PRA? Questions I and II mainly analyze PRA literature from the nuclear domain. For Questions III and IV, a broader review and categorization is conducted of those existing cross-disciplinary studies that have evaluated the effects of organizational factors on safety (not solely PRA-based) to shed more light on future research needs.     

GIS‐Based Integration of Social Vulnerability and Level 3 Probabilistic Risk Assessment to Advance Emergency Preparedness,Planning, and Response for Severe Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

In the nuclear power industry, Level 3 probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is used to estimate damage to public health and the environment if a severe accident leads to large radiological release. Current Level 3 PRA does not have an explicit inclusion of social factors and, therefore, it is not possible to perform importance ranking of social factors for risk‐informing emergency preparedness, planning, and response (EPPR). This article offers a methodology for adapting the concept of social vulnerability, commonly used in natural hazard research, in the context of a severe nuclear power plant accident. The methodology has four steps: (1) calculating a hazard‐independent social vulnerability index for the local population; (2) developing a location‐specific representation of the maximum radiological hazard estimated from current Level 3 PRA, in a geographic information system (GIS) environment; (3) developing a GIS‐based socio‐technical risk map by combining the social vulnerability index and the location‐specific radiological hazard; and (4) conducting a risk importance measure analysis to rank the criticality of social factors based on their contribution to the socio‐technical risk. The methodology is applied using results from the 2012 Surry Power Station state‐of‐the‐art reactor consequence analysis. A radiological hazard model is generated from MELCOR accident consequence code system, translated into a GIS environment, and combined with the Center for Disease Control social vulnerability index (SVI). This research creates an opportunity to explicitly consider and rank the criticality of location‐specific SVI themes based on their influence on risk, providing input for EPPR.     

Family and Household Formations and Suicide in the United States

Family support systems have been theoretically linked to suicide risk. But no research to date has investigated the effects of detailed living arrangements on individual risk of suicide. Using data on 825,462 adults from the National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality File reveals that living in families with stronger sources of social support and integration decreases risk of suicide. These effects persist despite controls for important individual level characteristics. Risk of suicide decreases for persons in married as well as unmarried families when children are present and risk increases for persons living with unrelated adults. These results reveal the structural importance of family formation on the social integrative forces that contribute to an individual's risk of suicide.